The Human Be-In was a gathering in Golden Gate Park on January 14, 1967 in which the world was invited to join in spiritual togetherness. A prelude to the San Francisco Summer of Love, the gathering promoted key ideas of the counterculture. Music, dance, and spoken word conveyed these messages. Timothy Leary, set the tone for the Human Be-In with his famous phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out."
Rick Griffin grew up in the surfing culture of Southern California, a milieu which had a profound influence on his art. After high school, he worked on the staff of Surfer magazine and created the best-known surfing cartoon character of the time, Murphy. After his move to San Francisco in 1967, be began combining eclectic typefaces and decorative borders with brilliant colors in his concert posters. Griffin's compositions were complex without being illegible. A perfectionist, Griffin often applied dozens of overlays and redrew lettering again and again until he was satisfied. In the early 1970s, Griffin became a born-again Christian and religious themes dominated his work until his death in a motorcycle accident in 1991.